Fans cheer for Zhu Ting of Henan during women's volleyball group A match between Henan and Beijing at China's 15th National Games in Macao, south China, Nov. 12, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Each morning, residents jog along the open greenways around Guangzhou's Tianhe Sports Center, once gated but now open as a shared park for everyday fitness. This month, those same paths welcome the 15th National Games, where the country's top competition meets people's sporting passion.

The National Games, which opened on Sunday in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, is China's largest-scale and highest-level multi-sport event. For the first time, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are co-hosting the event amid rising regional connectivity.

Guangdong is partnering with the two special administrative regions to tap into the event's consumption potential, launching multi-stop itineraries that connect venues with major attractions. Hong Kong's West Kowloon Station has opened special shuttle services for the spectators, while Macao has introduced a spectator bus pass.

In the recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) adopted at the fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee, the country reaffirmed the importance of boosting consumption.

"The supply of high-quality consumer goods and services should be expanded," the recommendations said, urging efforts to integrate various forms of business to boost consumption of services and develop a batch of high-profile new consumption scenarios with broad appeal.

Just as Guangzhou is opening fenced arenas for all, the country is making sport a shared pursuit of well-being and a new driver of growth. In September, the State Council issued guidelines to further stimulate sports consumption, aiming to have the industry exceed 7 trillion yuan (988 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030, nearly doubling its 2023 size.

Weeks earlier, a State Council executive meeting called for more efforts to spur sports demand, expand consumption scenarios, and roll out local incentive programs to meet rising consumer expectations.

The policy push builds on momentum already underway. Since 2021, the added value of the sports industry has grown by about 11 percent each year, reaching 1.15 percent of GDP in 2023. Sports-related consumer spending of 40 pilot cities rose by more than 100 billion yuan from 2020 to 2023.

"Public enthusiasm for participating in sports and related consumption is surging," said Li Jing, deputy head of the General Administration of Sport, adding that meeting that demand through more high-level events, outdoor activities and quality gear will sustain momentum in the industry's high-quality development.

Behind this surge is a broader social shift. A growing middle-income group of over 400 million people is reshaping how China spends on fitness, leisure and health. Industry data showed that by the end of 2024, the country had 87.5 million gym members, up 25 percent year on year, and 4.84 million sports venues totaling 4.23 billion square meters, or roughly 3 square meters per person.

This year's sports season has made that momentum visible on the ground. In Beijing, tennis star Zheng Qinwen's much-anticipated comeback in the China Open in late September packed over 45,000 fans into the National Tennis Center -- a tournament record. The event grossed about 88 million yuan in ticket sales, with overall on-site spending jumping 44 percent from last year.

Additionally, secondary fan zones sprang up across the city during the China Open -- from art districts to shopping centers, with large screens broadcasting matches live.

"Fans come not only to watch matches but also to experience the city," explained Li Xuhua, general manager of the China Open organizing company.

In the first half of 2025 alone, more than 500 surveyed sports events nationwide each boosted local consumption by an average of 30 million yuan.

Online retail tells a similar story. In the first half of 2025, sports goods sales across four major e-commerce platforms -- JD.com, Taobao, Tmall, and Douyin -- reached 218 billion yuan, up 17.5 percent from a year earlier, nearly tripling the year-on-year pace of overall online sales of physical goods nationwide.

Outdoor recreation is another bright spot, with the market expected to surpass 3 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, after years of rapid growth fueled by activities such as marathon races, skiing and camping.

With over 400 million people now participating in outdoor pursuits, the government is investing in trails and parks, aiming to build 100 high-quality outdoor destination bases by 2030 to capture the trend.

This growing enthusiasm is also energizing Chinese manufacturers. The country is now home to over 63,000 sports equipment manufacturing enterprises, with total annual output exceeding 1.5 trillion yuan, up from 1.12 trillion yuan in 2015.

Chinese-made equipment is widely used at international sports events and exported to over 100 countries and regions, with the total exports of sport appliances reaching 28.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, an increase of 6.8 percent year on year, according to the China Machinery Industry Federation.

At the heart of this year's National Games lies the main athletics track at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center, built by local firm Guangzhou Tongxin Sports Equipment Co., Ltd.

Chen Chen, co-president of the company, said the firm's factory links automation and digitization into a production chain from raw materials to finished tracks, a model he says is "redefining the manufacturing standard for sports venue materials."

Further south in Shenzhen, local brand XDS has evolved from a lab into a global cycling manufacturer with an annual output exceeding 8 million bikes and its products competing at the Olympics and the Tour de France.

Hosting major sports events has been shown to significantly boost the sports consumption market, said Wu Yannian, a professor at Jinan University's School of Physical Education.

As the country's top-level multi-sport event, the National Games is not only a stage for competition but increasingly a festival for the public, driving sales of sporting goods, upgrading equipment, and evolving into a celebration shared by all, Wu noted.